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Officers were even more stretched because they were sent to support the Metropolitan Police and Manchester Police during the terror attacks earlier this year.

And in the past six months Cambridgeshire has seen a 15 per cent increase in 999 calls and a 30 per cent increase in recorded crime, compared to the same period last year (January–June).

All this is putting a massive strain on officers, according to the Chief Constable.

Mr Wood said: “They are coping remarkably well and I’m really conscious that they are working hard. I’ve got 31 years policing experience.

“I’ve seen times when officers have been working very hard in Cambridgeshire following the Soham murders and Operation Fincham in 2002 but I think this is one of the busiest spells this constabulary has ever had and that’s being mirrored across the country.

“In my view they are responding brilliantly but we are seeing signs of fatigue and seeing some concerns about some levels of stress now.”

The force also faces budget shortfalls but the Chief Constable has vowed to keep the number of constables on the frontline at about 1,300, however managerial positions may go as part of far-reaching review of the force.

Mr Wood told the News: “We are at the moment, reviewing the way we deliver the policing model across the county to ensure that we have a model that is fit to meet those new demands and those new challenges which will involve reducing the number of policing areas from the current six down to a north and south with a headquarters in Cambridge and another in Peterborough.

“The intention with that is to free up some supervisory resources that we can eventually cash in for some more uniforms or constables should I say, some of those will be in uniforms some of them in investigations.”

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Cambridgeshire receives below the national average funding and has fewer officers per head of population. It has 2.8 officers per 1,000 compared to 3.6 nationally with 76 per cent of its workforce on the frontline, compared to 78 per cent nationally.

There has been a 17 per cent reduction in the force’s workforce since 2010 compared to 15 per cent nationally.

Cambridgeshire has some of the highest levels of 999 and 101 calls in the country at between 190,000 and 210,000 incidents per year.

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Crime Commissioner, Jason Ablewhite, said that officers are spending 50 police hours a day in A&E with people with mental health issues and 80 per cent of the time is spent on non-crimes.

Mr Wood said: “Yes, that’s pretty much the picture nationally, over 80 per cent of police time is spent on incidents which ultimately are not crime related.

“Concern for safety or suspicious incident that doesn’t end up being treated as a crime or a public safety event. “All of that is still the responsibility of the police but where I think the Commissioner is right.

"We are seeing increases in demand on the police because other agencies, because they are being squeezed for their financial position as well, are starting to focus more on what they would call their core business and we are, on occasions, picking up more and more work because of that.

“So our officers are spending a huge amount of time dealing with somebody with mental health issues, maybe that are threatening to self harm or maybe threatening to take their own life, when actually there are potentially more appropriate professionals out their to deal with that particular scenarios.”